When Katie Price heard she was facing a record seventh consecutive bushtucker trial on Sunday night, she said simply, "I'm not doing it." By 3am British time a spokesman had confirmed that she was leaving the show altogether. "I've done all my challenges," said Price tearfully. "People can see I'm genuine."

Last night's programme had the air of a post-mortem, a last chance for Price to explain why she'd decided to leave, and more significantly perhaps, why she'd decided to return to the jungle in the first place, nearly six years after she first appeared on the show.

During the course of the week she spoke repeatedly about "closure". Tonight she mentioned it again. "People say 'why do you need to do closure in front of millions?'" she said. "Well I'm sorry, but that was where I met my husband."

And that's where she's lived since: in front of millions. The most important moments in her life, happy or sad, require an audience.

Before Price entered the jungle in early 2004 she was largely still known as Jordan, a media phenomenon that began on Page 3 and seemed by then to have run its course. I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!, after all, was a temporary berth for has-beens in search of a last squeeze of the tube, people like Peter Andre.

When Price emerged from the jungle the first time, it was as a woman with an enhanced, but hard to quantify, reputation. She was applauded for being a tough nut among flakes, for possessing humour, intelligence, self-awareness and authenticity. Even her detractors had to admit she had become a shrewd media manipulator. A well-timed autobiography, Being Jordan, and a highly televised marriage to Andre followed.

By the time she returned to the jungle last week, Price's control over her image had been badly eroded. Earlier in the year her marriage had broken up in the full glare of media scrutiny, and she fared badly in recent tabloid skirmishes with her ex-husband.

The public seemed in the mood to exact punishment, via the blunt instrument of the phone vote. Price was covered in cockroaches, sent into rat-infested tunnels and obliged to eat kangaroo anuses. "What did I do to deserve eating arse?" she asked.

If she hoped her gameness would win viewers over, then she'd forgotten how the programme works. Her complete reliance on public approval makes it a high stakes game. It's unclear what exactly she hoped to achieve by going back, or by leaving early. She said she did not care about her reported – and now possibly forfeited – £350,000 fee. She may be worth an estimated £30m, but she didn't get that rich by not caring about money. She was probably being honest when she said she didn't fear eviction, and she was almost certainly telling the truth when she said she wasn't in to win it. She finished fifth last time, and has fared much better than winners such as Kerry Katona, Carol Thatcher and the current incumbent Joe Swash.

It is likely a short stay was always foreseen and it's possible that this departure was part of her timetable.

Tonight she gave the impression that she went into the jungle to repair her damaged reputation, and that she thought a week had been sufficient. "I'm just gonna have a fresh start," she said. "And I hold my hands up, the past seven months I have acted like a right twit, but that was the way I dealt with things, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone."

By way of completing her public penance, Price announced on live television that she was splitting up with her cage fighter boyfriend, Alex Reid. He is reportedly on his way to Australia to propose to her. She told I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! presenters Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly: "I've done a lot of reflecting. I think it's best I'm on my own, I just don't want to be in a relationship. I hope we can remain friends."

It remains to be seen whether the public are minded to forgive, but at least they're still paying attention.